Burnham Property Tax

I've had more calls about property tax this month than I've had about interest rates, and that tells you something. Since Keir Starmer's resignation on 22 June 2026, Andy Burnham has become the clear frontrunner for the Labour leadership, and his long standing views on how we tax property are suddenly a lot more than academic.

Here's my view. There are two different stories being talked about as if they're one, and if you're a developer, landlord or investor, mixing them up could cost you money.

Story one: what's actually confirmed

The government's High Value Council Tax Surcharge is real, it's live, and it's not Burnham's policy at all. It was announced at Budget 2025 and the consultation on the details opened on 19 May 2026, closing 14 July 2026, with the government's response and legislation expected ahead of an April 2028 start date, according to the GOV.UK consultation.

It hits the top 1% of properties by value, with bands running up to "Over £5 million, £7,500" a year. OBR modelling puts the number of properties in scope at around 165,000 in 2028/29, rising to 167,000 by 2030/31, and the whole thing is expected to raise about £430 million a year for local government, per the Commons Library briefing.

Geographically, this is a London and South East story more than anything else. Cities of London and Westminster had the highest number of £2 million plus sales at 1,037, with Kensington and Bayswater close behind on 974, again from the Commons Library data. If your development book is in North Wales or most of the regions, direct exposure to this particular charge is low. Worth knowing, not worth panicking about.

Story two: what's aspirational

Separately, Burnham has been consistent for years that the UK "over taxes labour and under taxes assets", and he's called council tax "highly regressive", backing the Fairer Share campaign's Proportional Property Tax model, as covered by the Chartered Institute of Taxation. Fairer Share's own numbers propose a flat 0.48% charge on property value, with a 0.96% surcharge for second homes, empty homes and non resident owned property, and they claim 75% of households would see their bills fall under the model, according to the Fairer Share Manifesto.

None of that is government policy. There's no manifesto, no consultation, no date. It's a direction of travel from a man who isn't PM yet.

Why this matters for anyone financing land or development

If a proportional property tax based on current values ever replaced stamp duty and council tax, it would change site appraisals and land banking economics overnight, because holding land or property would carry an ongoing, revaluation linked cost rather than a one off transaction charge. Knight Frank's Tom Bill has already flagged the risk that annual revaluations turn house price growth into "an ongoing tax liability", a view reported by The Negotiator. Jeremy Leaf, former RICS Residential Chairman, goes further, saying the hardest part is setting a rate that doesn't discourage development while still incentivising sites to come forward, and he's called Burnham's approach "laudable but doesn't seem to have been well thought through", also via The Negotiator. Propertymark has separately made the point that accurate, consistent valuations are a prerequisite for any of this working at all, as set out on their own site.

For owners of £2 million plus homes, the confirmed surcharge alone creates a genuine window between now and April 2028 where restructuring, selling ahead of the charge, or bridging a gap while a sale completes could all be live options worth exploring properly rather than rushing.

My advice for now is simple. Don't make finance decisions based on Burnham's speeches, because there's no policy to plan around yet. Do factor the confirmed 2028 surcharge into any exit strategy involving high value property. And if you're unsure which of these two stories actually affects your deal, that's exactly the kind of question I sort through with lenders every week using real data rather than headlines.